Incomes rose 0.3% from the previous month in January, above expectations for a 0.2% advance. The January gains brought the year-over-year change in total incomes to 4.1%.

Spending was up 0.4% — above expectations for a 0.1% gain — but December's 0.4% gain was revised down to 0.1%. Nonetheless, total spending in January was up 3.5% from a year earlier.

"The details are much less impressive," says Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

"Excluding the 11.3% leap in real spending on utility electricity and gas — cold weather boosted demand for heating energy — real spending rose only 0.09%, compared to the 0.19% Q4 average. The core problem for consumers remains the sluggishness of real income growth, which rose 0.3% in January but fell 0.2% in December. The trend is running a bit below 2% at an annualized rate, and with the saving rate still very low at just 4.3%, it is hard to see scope for sustained gains in spending in excess of income growth."